Getting Started, Converting the OVF for VMware ESXi

Owned by Mark Unwin
Last updated: May 28, 2024 by Mitchell Saunders
2 min read

Importing the OVA directly to ESXi using the GUI

It is possible (in ESXi 7 and newer) to import and deploy the OVA directly using the ESXi Graphical User Interface (GUI).

  1. Point your browser to your ESXi Graphical User Interface and authenticate with your credentials.
  2. Click on the Virtual Machines tab, then click "Create / Register VM".
  3. Choose the option "Deploy a virtual machine from an OVF or OVA file" like the below. Click Next.
  4. You will then be prompted to:
    1. Choose a name for the virtual machine. For example "FirstWave-NMIS-VM"
    2. Click/drag the FirstWave OVA you downloaded from our website onto your local machine. 
    3. Once these steps have been done, click Next.
  5. Choose which datastore to install the virtual machine to. Click Next.
  6. You will then be prompted to:
    1. Choose which network the virtual machine will communicate over.
    2. How the disk will be provisioned, either Thin or Thick.
    3. Whether or not you want the virtual machine to powered on automatically.
    4. Once you have completed the above steps, click Next.
  7. You will then be presented with a summary, then click Finish.

The OVA import process will then commence. After some time it will then complete and you will be able to use the virtual machine. Once powered on, use our provided credentials to login. You can find this in the Install instructions on our website.

Tip: Once authenticated, our appliance ships with a Message of the Day (MOTD) which will provide you with the virtual machine's IP address (if DHCP is enabled), used to access the NMIS Suite Graphical User Interface (GUI). You can also find this by typing "ip a" into the console of the virtual machine.

Importing the OVA file directly to ESXi using VMware OVF Tool

You can import the OVA file directly into ESXi using VMware ovftool, from the PC or server you run ovftool.
Remember to set the Virtual Machine name you like, the datastore you want, the network you want, and point it at the server you want to deploy to.
Run the command like this:

ovftool --name="FirstWave-NMIS-VM" -dm="thin" -ds=SSD_Datastore -nw="NMIS Network" FirstWave-VM-20240130-Debian11-x86_64.ova vi://user:escaped_password@host_ip_address


Opening OVA source: FirstWave-VM-20240130-Debian11-x86_64.ova
Opening VI target: vi://user@host_ip_address:443/
Deploying to VI: vi://user@host_ip_address:443/
Transfer Completed
Warning:
- No supported manifest(sha1, sha256, sha512) entry found for: 'omk-vm9-debian11-disk001.vmdk'.
- No supported manifest(sha1, sha256, sha512) entry found for: 'omk-vm9-debian11-disk002.vmdk'.
- No manifest file found.
Completed successfully